10gen with MongoDB want to be the next billion-dollar open source company

If you had any doubt that the Big Data and NoSQL database market continue to remain red hot, look no further than today's announcement that 10gen, makers of the open source mongodb, raised a staggering $42 million. That is a big raise by anyone's yardstick and further validates the NoSQL-Big Data market.

I had a chance to speak with Max Schireson, President of 10gen, about the raise. Max tells me that the money will be used mostly for R&D engineering to continue making mongodb the best choice in the NoSQL market. There are many more Schireson says that 10gen's sales machine basically pays for itself, so little if any of the money raised will go towards that.

I have spoken to 10gen and Schireson before and the steady progress that the company has made is not surprising to those who follow it. 10gen founder and CEO Dwight Merriman was a co-founder and long time CTO of Double Click Networks, CDNetworks, Gilt Groupe and BusinessInsider.com. So a culture and history of success has been present here from the beginning.

Schireson and 10gen believe that mongoDB probably represents about one half of all of the NoSQL installs in place. That is a pretty impressive number considering all of the contenders and pretenders in the NoSQL market. As with any market, consolidation is bound to occur in the NoSQL space as well. Usually, the leaders of any new market get the lion's share of the returns. If that holds true here, 10gen should certainly pay off handsomely to its investors.

Speaking of investors this new round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Flybridge Capital and Union Square Ventures. Rumors are that this round valued 10gen at over $500 million.

10gen is committed to continuing the open source version of mongodb. It still represents the "on ramp" for customers. Schireson says that 10gen would like to follow the Red Hat model of open source success. With CEO Merriman already responsible for several multi-billion dollar companies, could it be that 10gen will be the next billion-dollar open source company?